Definition:
A unilineal group of kin who claim but cannot trace their actual descent from a remote common ancestor or ancestress is a clan.
The definition points out that clan is a unilineal descent group, that clan members have a remote ancestor and that the common ancestor or ancestress lived many generations back, that the ancestor or ancestress is forgotten and has become mythological and that members who belonged to the group through several generations are so numerous that the bold ties among many and the links back to the ancestor or ancestress are no longer known. All members of a clan cannot be identified and genealogical links between them cannot be established. The members of the group have only a tradition of belonging to the same group rather than being able to tell just how all members related. In other words, clan members can only stipulate their descent but cannot demonstrate their descent. Hence clan is based on stipulated descent. Sometimes the ancestor of a clan is not a human at all, but an animal, a plant or even an inanimate object. Whether human or not, the common ancestor symbolizes as the progenitor of the clan members. The clan members simply believe and claim that they are the descendants of that common ancestor. Thus a clan is a unilineal descent group that maintains the fiction of common genetic descent from a remote ancestor or ancestress, usually legendary or mythological.
What are the differences between a lineage and a clan? First, alienage is based on demonstrated descent but a clan is based on stipulated descent. Second, a lineage is a part of the clan and two or more lineages together form into a clan. Third, a lineage is composed of several families but a clan is composed of several lineages. Fourth, a lineage has a known and identifiable ancestor but a clan has a fictitious ancestor. Fifth, with reference to lineage, kinship is traced over a definite member of generations but in the case of clan, kinship is acknowledged for over several generations. Sixth, lineage is small, while clan is a large group. Seventh, all the members of a lineage may reside together in the same house or in adjacent houses, Clan members never reside together in the same house as there are too many of them. The clan members are disbursed over a large area. Eighth, a lineage is always a corporate group but a clan is not always corporate, finally, a lineage is never a totemic group but a clan is often associated with totemism
.Types:
Based upon the various forms of unilineal descent clans may be classified into two broad types: Patricians and matriclans
A kinship group whose members claim but cannot trace descent from a remote common male ancestor is a patrician, It is based on stipulated patrilineal descent, what the British anthropologists call a clan, American anthropologists call it a sib. Likewise what the British anthropologists call patrician and matriclan are called Gens and clan respectively by American anthropologists.
Distribution:
Clans occur in simple and complex societies and in all major geographical areas of the world- Among these societies vast majorities have patricians while a small proportion have matriclans, the societies with patricians range from hunting-gathering societies such as Chippewa Red Indians of the United States of America, pastoral societies such as Nuer of Sudan, and pastoral cum-agricultural societies like the Swazis of South Africa to advanced civilizations like that of traditional China and several parts of India. It may be said that patricians are almost a general characteristic of pastoral and agricultural societies.
Like the patriclans, matriclans also occur in societies of varying levels of complexity. They can be found among the fishing societies like the Kwakiutl, Tlingit and Kaida Red Indians of British Columbia, among the horticultural societies like Navaho, Hopi, Zuni and Cherokee Red Indians of the united states of America, the Ashanti, Plateau Tonga, Bemba and Yako of Africa and the Trobriand islanders of Melanesia and among the agricultural societies like the Nayar of Kerala in India.
Attributes:
- Name: Clans can be identified by the fact that they have names; very often they are named after animals such as Bear, wolf, Fox, Kangaroo, Tiger, Eagle, Hawk, cow or Goat or after plants or other aspects of the environment.
- Exogamy: As clan members are brothers and sisters, they are required to be exogamous, that is marry outside their clan. In societies with clans, a husband belongs to one clan and a wife belongs to another clan. Among the Tadas of India the clan are exogamous but the moieties are endogamous. Among the Kipsigis of Kenya, exogamy extends only to a sub-division of the clan.
- Common religious obligations: A clan will have its own religion. It will have its own ancestors and super naturals the members of every clan observe certain common taboos, and cooperate in religious ceremonials. Their religion will be rationalized by a body of mythology that will often explain the origin of their clan. Each clan, as among the Hopi Red Indians, nay have its own sacred objects and. places of worship every clan, as among the Chinese, may maintain its own ancestor halls for the memory and worship of clan ancestors. Each clanas in the Muria Gonds in Chhattisgarh may have a specific clan area as its spiritual capital. Clan is often associated with totemism. The non-human ancestor of a clan such as plant, an animal or any natural phenomenon is called totem ancestor. The members of a clan believe that ‘they are descendants of a totem ancestor. The name of the clan is as that of the totem ancestor. The members of a clan do not harm, kill or eat an animal or plant that represents their totem ancestor. They respect their totem ancestor and conduct certain periodic rituals in its honour. The Yako of eastern Nigeria have small land owning patrilineages. A group of these patrilineages live together as a clan in a section of a village. Each clan has a ritual leader who is in charge of the clan shrine and presides over informal meetings of lineage elders and’ notables.
- Corporate character: A clan acts like a corporation. It may own shrines , temples and sacred place (Muria Gonds of Madhya Pradesh), Murngin (Australia) and Hopi Red Indians (united States), personal names, crests and songs (Haida of British Columbia) , canoes, houses and house sites (Tikopia of Polynesia), club houses (Tchambuli of New Guinea), economically valuable land (Fiji of Oceania, Ifaluk of Micronesia, wogeo of Melanesia and Menangkabau of Indonesia). A clan not only owns property but also regulates the distribution and controls the inheritance of property among its members.
- Coroorate enterprise: In accordance with its corporate character a clan may act as a unit on several occasions. Members of clan show their solidarity by coming together on ceremonial occasions such as initiations, wedding and funerals, and ritual celebrations conducted in honour of their totem ancestors. The members of a clan cooperate in carrying on economic activities, in giving financial aid to a member who got “into trouble, in offering socio-economic support to a sick member and in arranging various inter-clan feasts on several occasions. Through narration of myths regarding the origin of clans each clan reinforces its corporate character and identifies itself as a group set apart from others. Among the Navaho Red Indians (New Mexico), a clan pays damages for members who got into trouble or finance a “curing rite” for a sick member. Among the Gusii of Kenya, and Trobriand islanders in Melanesia, the clan members join together in work-bees. The Muria Gonds of Chhattisgarh have great clan festivals. The Murngin of Australia also have their own clan ceremonies.
- Government: In some societies each clan has its own executive, its own code of laws and power to punish infractions of laws. That means each clan has a government of its own. in some societies like the Trobrianders of Melanesia, Ashantis and Dahomeans of Africa the clans are ranked and the most superior clan is regarded as the royal clan and hereditary chief hails from this clan. In some societies (Aztecs of Mexico) the heads of different clans form into a council and this council controls ordinary political decisions, makes war and peace and Decides disputes between clans and members of different clans.
- Mutual aid and hospitality: Members of a clan have the obligation to extend hospitality and mutual aid to one another For example, among the Ashanti in. Ghana, Ifaluk in Micronesia, and Kurtachi in Solomon Islands, a traveler can stop in a strange village, find out who his clansmen are, and receive hospitality from them. Among several societies like the Kipsigis of Kenya, Kwoma of New Guinea, Lepcha of Sikkim and wogeo of Melanesia, the members of a clan work as an association for aiding each other. Among the Chinese every clan takes care of its members who are poor and finance its promising members in the field of education.
- Legal Function: A clan commonly represents its individual members in law suits and legal matters. It also becomes responsible for the illegal acts of its members. It accounts For the conduct of each of its members
- Feuding: A clan is not only a political unit but also a legal instrument and a military unit, since all clan mates are brothers and sisters, every member is aided and protected in all hazards. A clan member believes that the blood of the clan. Is his own blood. Based on this belief one tries to protect another. If a person of one clan kills a member of another clan, all the members of ‘the victim’s clan unite and fight against all the members of the other clan , vengeance is taken on the other kin group, The other kin group retaliates. Their retaliation is revenged. The military history of clans among the Murngin of Australia and Siwai of Solomon Islands reveals blood feuds.
To be brief, like the attributes of a lineage, the attributes of a clan also reveal how people in different societies order their lives and relationships through organized efforts.